Tunisia young leaders programme - Exploring unconscious bias - 10th of February 2021

On February 10th, the Tunisia Young Leaders Programme convened a workshop led by Mohamed Okda – a political consultant with extensive business experience, who is active in the issues of interfaith, crisis mediation and assessment, the economics of conflict and religious–secular dialogue. He is the founder of Insight into Crisis, a conflict advisory. This workshop focused on a key question– what does effective leadership look like? This involves looking at the challenges that influence on him decision-making such as confirmation bias; a failure to examine assumptions and think collectively.One of the key issues addressed during the meeting was how to engage with others who may have opposing views and understand their perspective. Agreeing to disagree in a space that allows for productive and effective dialogue can help young leaders develop practical policies that can be implemented in the long run. Having a conscious awareness of bias could also ensure that groups interact with other groups for the purpose of understanding them and analysing facts, rather than being driven by assumptions or preconceived notions. During this workshop there were 12 different types of biases that were explored with the group. Aim of the workshop was to broaden the spectrum of understanding of bias and apply to social, economic, business, and political challenges to try and find solutions with neutral approaches and information. In the next session young leaders will present one or two cases where biases have impacted outcome. Through this activity the young leaders can try to decipher how to improve the response without being driven by bias.